Sunday, August 19, 2007

Back to school shopping

Have you been feeling the back to school blues in regards to your budget lately? It's that time of year, and if you haven't planned for it, it can wreak havoc on your finances.

We don't go overboard when it comes to back to school clothes shopping. Each of the girls is allowed to get one special outfit for the first day of school. Shoes and backpacks if they need it. We've been stockpiling on school supplies when we find really cheap deals.

A few weeks ago, Staples had a penny sale on school supplies, and we loaded up then on pencils, pencil boxes, folders, erasers and pencil sharpeners. They were each only a penny. They had limits on most items, but we did good an made a good dent in supplies we will need.

Friday we were in Fred Meyer and they had all their backpacks marked down 50% already. They also had filler packs of paper for 4/$1.00. The week before, they had 1-subject notebooks for 10/$1.00.

A few weeks back, Target had a great deal on the 24-pack of crayons, and I stocked up on those as well. I have way more than we need on some items, but I'm sure I'll still need some things as well. I don't mind buying extra if the deals are great, we can always use it later, or in this case, the kids will be participating in a community service project for 4-H at fair next week. We are collecting school supplies for needy kids, so we will donate whatever we have that we don't need there.

We've gotten shoes taken care of, and luckily we did ok there also. We looked at Fred Meyer, and the girls didn't see anything they were CRAZY about. My oldest saw a pair of VANS she had to have, but they didn't have them in her size, so we left without getting anything. Instead, we went over to Volume Shoe Source, and the kids all found things they were thrilled with, and each pair was about half the cost of the ones at Freddies, so momma was a happy camper!

I'll buy jeans at the thrift store as they need them. I go often enough there looking for things to sell on Ebay, and I always keep my eyes out for the girls. I'd much rather pay 1.99 for a pair of jeans, than full price at other stores.

All these little things add up, and I save quite a bit in the end. Doing it this way prevents that HUGE ding to our budget, and allows us to use that cash to pay off our debts.

add to sk*rt

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